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“I’m telling ya, lad, he’s a shoo-in for the summer tour,” Podge pushed, wolfing down a sandwich as they discussed some rugby player. “Maybe even the senior team.”
“Bullshit,” Alec argued, tossing his crisp packet on the table. “He’s younger than us.” Turning to Joey, he asked, “What do you reckon?”
“You know my view on Kavanagh,” my boyfriend said with a shrug. “He’s going to make a fucking fortune.”
“Thank you,” Podge said before turning back to Alec with a smug expression etched on his face. “I rest my case.”
Reaching over, Casey gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and mouthed “It’s going to be okay.”
I couldn’t return her reassuring smile. I couldn’t even breathe. As my gaze flicked between my best friend and my boyfriend, I felt the walls of the canteen close in around me.
This isn’t happening.
This can’t be happening.
And yet, here I was on the verge of the unspeakable and the brink of a mental breakdown.
“Hey.” Joey’s voice broke through my frantic thoughts, and I felt his fingers on my chin, tilting my face up to look at him. “You good, queen?”
“Yeah.” Releasing a shaky breath, I leaned my cheek against his hand, reeling in my panic and the warm feel of his touch on my skin. “It’s all good, stud.”
His green eyes were clear, focused, and full of unconcealed affection.
The way he looked at me now was worlds apart from the way he used to. I could see the trust he had for me. He didn’t try to hide his feelings from me anymore, and seeing all of this in his eyes only made my stomach knot up tighter.
He turned back to his friends, chatting and laughing, but he kept his hand on my cheek, as his thumb traced the curve of my jaw, and I was grateful for the contact.
Shifting closer, I leaned my other cheek against his side, and clenched my eyes shut, inhaling his scent and taking comfort in the sheer strength of his body.
In the moment.
Because I knew that once I told Joey, the moment I conveyed to him his biggest fear, then everything we had worked so hard to build would go clean out the window.
His trust.
His communication.
His sobriety.
No.
Clenching my eyes shut tighter, I repressed the urge to sob.
I couldn’t let this happen.
PART 3
29
Mood Swings and Mister Rugby
JOEY
I was having a very weird week, in which some of the females in my life were acting strange as hell. Molloy, who had never been short of something to say a day in her life, had barely spoken more than a few sentences to me since yesterday, and her little sidekick, who had been just as blessed with the gift of the gab, had spoken even less.
When school finished, she couldn’t get away from me fast enough, mumbling some shit about having a hair appointment before burning off in her car with said sidekick in tow.
I wasn’t stupid.
